RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

Other sites visited: arXiv, UCR/DESY FAQ, Google Patents, atogt, Yumpu

  • https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608223. C. E. Navia, C. R. A. Augusto, D. F. Franceschini, M. B. Robba, K. H. Tsui, "Search for anisotropic light propagation as a function of laser beam alignment relative to the Earth's velocity vector" (10 Aug 2006).
  • A laser diffraction experiment with segmented photodiodes (precision better than 0.1 µm), using a fixed beam scanned by Earth's rotation and a turntable. They report a first-order signature Δc/c = −β(1+2a)cos θ with a = −0.4106 ± 0.0225, an 18% difference from the SR value a = −1/2 [web]. The full PDF mentions that "Silvertooth has claimed an experimental detection of the ether drift velocity" (Google snippet). It shares the approach (one-way, laser, sidereal alignment with the CMB direction). Not read in full.

math.ucr.edu: Roberts & Schleif, "What is the experimental basis of Special Relativity?" (2007) (mainstream FAQ)

  • https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/experiments.html (via WebFetch for exact text after Chrome find).
  • Section 3.2 "One-Way Tests of Light-Speed Isotropy": "Silvertooth, JOSA 62 (1972), pg 1330. This innovative experiment uses an interferometer with frequency-doubling crystals ... Its null result is consistent with SR." [web]
  • Section 10 "Experiments that Apparently are NOT Consistent with SR/GR" lists Silvertooth & Jacobs 1983, Silvertooth 1986 and Silvertooth & Whitney 1992 as a series "in which Silvertooth claims to measure" absolute motion. It notes a "common thread" of claimed "agreement with Miller's result" (Kantor, Marinov, Silvertooth, Torr and Kolen, Munera, Cahill). This is the FAQ authors' characterization.
  • Bearing: the inventor's 1972 one-way experiment is recorded by mainstream authors as a NULL result. That is pertinent to claim 4 and to how his views developed.

Google Patents (priority 1)

  • https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Silvertooth&before=priority:20000101 and ?inventor=Ernest+W+Silvertooth. Queries: inventor:Silvertooth before 2000; inventor:(Ernest W Silvertooth).
  • Only one result: US3527526A "Catoptric image-forming system in which light is reflected twice from each surface", Ernest W. Silvertooth, filed and priority 26 May 1965, granted 8 Sep 1970, with family members in DE and GB (numbers not opened). It is an optics patent and has no bearing on the ether claims. No patent on the standing-wave sensor or the ether interferometer was found. Older patents (1940s Paramount era) may be OCR-indexed under other spellings; not tried.

atogt.com (Academy Awards database) (priority 4)

  • Confirms the 1941 (14th) Academy Scientific or Technical Award to "Wilbur Silvertooth and the Paramount Studio Engineering Department" for a relay condenser system for transparency process projection [web: Google result snippets for atogt.com, cinemasight.com and Wikipedia].

Yumpu: Marinov, "The thorny way of truth" (blocked)